How to Clean Toilet Bowl with Coke

The Coca Cola soda we all know and love that’s comes in diet, caffeine-free, and original varieties; can actually double up as toilet bowl cleaner. Yes, this fizzy drink is not only good at quenching your thirst, but can also be used to get a spotlessly clean bathroom – free from mold, bacteria, and stubborn stains.

Well, this DIY trick isn’t as sophisticated as getting store-bought cleaners and scrubbing the toilet bowls, but it is quick and easy. Plus there’s a high possibility you have the drink in your pantry. Let’s get down to how works and the steps to do the cleaning.

How Does Coke Work?

It’s fizzy, hence it has been carbonated to maintain its freshness as well as the taste. The carbon dioxide used to preserve the gas in the soda reacts with stains in the toilet to loosen them up a bit to allow you to scrub them off easily.

The coke contains three essential ingredients that may aid it in removing dirt as well as deal with rusty residue. These ingredients include:

• Carbonic acid – a common ingredient in many other cleaning agents,  this contains a chemical compound that breaks down the carbon dioxide and water leaving the co2 to act on the stain forcing it apart.
• Citric acid – found in many fruits such as lemons, this acid has long been known to act as a cleaning agent. It kills mold, mildew, and even bacteria. It’s also an excellent disinfectant that can clean out any surface with hard water stains, limescale calcium scale, rust, and other debris.
• Phosphoric acid – another cleaning acid that has also been used to clean out grout, cement, or mortar from tiled surfaces and unwanted areas. It easily dissolves rust, hard water stains and safer to use than hydrochloric acid.

Its acidic nature resembles that of vinegar hence can easily be used with other ingredients for cleaning purposes.

Now, you have to know that coke own  its own is not the best choice for a thorough clean up. In fact, some people who have tried say it does not work at all.

This is because it’s not a disinfectant and can’t kill the germs deciding in the bowl or under the rim. But it has other active ingredients that make it suitable to remove mineral deposits and discoloration rings from the toilet bowl.

Another thing you ought to know is that coke doesn’t act like a grease stripper, hence it will not be cleaning out fats and oils, or greasy stains in the toilet.

If you’d like to do that, then simply use a bar of dish soap or an acidic substance afterward for a strong finish.

Steps to Clean with Coke

1. Assemble Your Materials and Begin

The first order of the day is to get the things you’ll need to clean out the toilet. You’ll obviously need a bottle of coke, a measuring cup, a bucket, and a rag.

To start off, measure about a cup of coke from the bottle and put it inside the toilet bowl as well as under the rim, let the soda trickle downwards to get an even coating all around the bowl. It’s okay if it only remains a thin coating as the rest settles on the waterline.

If you are targeting a specific region, like under the rim or the backside of the toilet bowl, you can soak up a rag with coke and lay it over the stained area. A spray can also work well but it will take some time.

2. Allow for a Soaking Period

Now allow the coal to sit in for some time even up to the evening or overnight. This will allow the coke to have enough time to loosen the stains and dirt awaiting you to come to clean it up. 

3. Clean-Up Time

After the soaking period, now it’s time to clean up the toilet. Scrub a small section of the toilet to see in the built-up stains have loosened up. If not you can leave it on for a while or clean up anyway and repeat the procedure again.

For a quick rinse, flush the toilet to see the progress made. You should at least see some difference from before with the mineral stains removed, as well as other tough stains. If you desire, you can repeat the procedure all over again to see if you’ll achieve better results.

It is essential that you clean up the toilet further after the coke soak up because coke can leave sugar sediments in the toilet that tends to attract mold and other bacteria in the toilet. You don’t want to be inviting more problems in your toilet.

Repeating the procedure should only aim to remove hard water stains and some discoloration since coke can’t remove other tough stains such as pen marks or ink. If you want to remove such, you may need an alcoholic liquid to scrape it right off.

Additional Methods for Cleaning with Coke

There can be other tough stains in the toilet due to the type of water you use or the extent of a mold infestation in the washroom. Hence, here are other methods you can use alongside coke to deeply clean out the stains.

1. Use More Aggressive Measures

By more aggressive we don’t mean you should introduce extremely harsh chemical cleaners to the toilet bowl instead, invest in a simple hand brush it sandpaper to use it to scrub after an overnight soak in coke. Coca Cola only loosens the stains the brush can be used to further remove the built-up dirt by actin of brushing against the Porcelain.

So put on some gloves, take your scrubber and scrub the walls of the toilet bowl as thoroughly as possible. You can scrub with the abrasive pad before and after the soak period.  After which you can then invest in other measures like using chemical cleaners.

2. Use Heat to Aid

On several occasions, the chemical compound you’re using can be heated up a little to activate the ingredients to work faster and harder. Under high temperatures, acidic substances such as vinegar and Coca Cola will react better to the stains.

Hence heat up the coca-cola just a little bit on stove or microwave (30 seconds) and pour it into the bowl. Leave it on for a while and use the same procedure as above to clean the toilet.

3. Combine It with Other Cleaning Agents

The third option is to use coke with other ingredients like borax, baking soda, vinegar, lemons, or hydrogen peroxide. The essence of combining the agents is so that the acid in the coke can react with it to give off better results. Here are several chemical compounds to can use:

• Use baking soda and vinegar as the first round of cleaning the toilet. After they have removed the first layer of dirt, now add in the coke as a second layer to finish the job.
• Try a borax paste where a tablespoon of borax with about 10 drops of coke. There will be fizzing but the mixture will work as needed.
• Hydrogen peroxide and water. Adding the two and pouring over the toilet has the same effect as the first option. The ammonia in the peroxide will kill germs, and loosen hard water stains.
• Finally, mix coca-cola and lemon juice. The added citric acid should do the trick.

You can use the method below on baking soda and coke for a cleaning effect.

Method

1. Measure about a cup of baking soda and sprinkle it inside the toilet bowl.
2. Pour in the coke directly on top of the baking soda to engage a chemical reaction.
3. Let it sit for sometime like an hour and come back for some scrubbing.
4. Scrub gently and flush the toilet for a quick rinse.
5. The toilet bowl should be sparkling clean.